Northern Highbush blueberries are the most commonly planted blueberries used for commercial and home production of fruit in the Northern U.S. and Canada. The new cultivar is from a planned breeding program for an improved blueberry. It was developed at a blueberry farm in Silverton, Oreg. using open pollination with unnamed seedlings for the parents.
This new Northern Highbush Blueberry is uniquely distinguished by its extremely firm fruit and the concentrated ripening of its berries. It is an excellent berry for mechanical harvest and the extra firm berries give a long shelf life. In addition the new cultivar produces mid to late-season, has a medium sweet, floral flavor, small, dry stem scars, and has an upright moderately spreading compact habit.
Compared to Vaccinium corymbosum ‘Draper’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 15,103, the new cultivar has firmer berries, a smaller habit, and a later fruiting season.
Compared to Vaccinium corymbosem ‘06-22’, U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 13/998,303, the new cultivar has a more spreading habit and a medium sweet, floral berry flavor rather than sweet-tart.
Asexual propagation by stem tip cuttings in Silverton, Oreg., shows that the foregoing characteristics and distinctions come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagations. The present invention has not been evaluated under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary with changes in environment without a change in the genotype of the plant.